FJ
Fatima J

1 reviews | Active since Sept 2022

01 Sept 2022, 12:26

Eskom Customer Services - not taken seriously enough

The service I am currently receiving from Eskom is putrid. On the 1st August 2022 we had a power outage at my home - the only house in the entire neighbourhood of Belhar Ext 13 - has been out for 4 days before two technicians arrived to fix the problem. The problem was a simple switch at a mini substation which took 5 minutes. FOUR DAYS for a 5 MINUTE SOLUTION. However, it went off again on the 27 August 2022 - again the only house in the neighbourhood - and still off today 1st September 2022. TWICE IN ONE MONTH - SERIOUS PROBLEM! This call was logged on Saturday, 27th August 2022 via ALFRED chatbot because there were no after hour service on their call centre (***). There were no operators picking up their phones. Since then we have been phoning into the call centre up to 4 times a day. Even after escalation from the operators - there are still no technicians at my door for assistance. We even obtained another reference number (*** - spoke to Mzwandile) to indicate a repeated service call out. I then, followed to contact Zethu Sonjica (customer relations manager of Belhar area) but her phone's mailbox "is full and cannot accept any more calls". I then, followed with a phone call to David Okhuis (customer relations manager of WC) and his phone rang and went to voice mail to leave a message (a little more hope than the previous manager). I left 2 voice messages and followed up with leaving WhatsApp messages which went through with 2 ticks and turned blue later that day. He did not respond to date. I am hoping that maybe it is being looked into because I implored that I am a desperate mother. I have even emailed the Senior Manager Khazase Lobese and indicated my entire experience of no technicians or communication from Eskom. Thus far the only communication I received from Eskom was on 31st August 2022 at 18h31 via SMS that Eskom is aware of your fault, the area is backlogged with queries, a technician will be sent out as soon as possible. I am very sorry to say, but that is not good enough to satisfy a customer, especially after 5 days. Each day of my calls, I have been told that they will be coming out on that day. If not, I should follow up with a call to the call centre. This is in no way helping my situation of having no power for 6 six days - no warm water to wash, food gone bad in the a fridge which is now a cupboard and we cannot cook food. We have to buy food for our children to eat - it is extremely costly. We have a fish tank where all our fish died due to cold water and no air in the pumps. We cannot charge our cell phones nor laptops for work purposes. This is an essential service which the general public is dependent on and Eskom is not taking it very seriously of the type of service it is providing. It is the taxpayer's money which is keeping their generators running and is the taxpayer who is most deserving of proper treatment when logging faults or complaints. How would those very managers feel if they are without electricity even for 2 days with small children to clean and feed? The call centre which is supposed to be 24/7 is not as it is advertised. The voice prompt strictly "tells you - please note we operate Monday - Friday from 8am to 4pm".

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